DAKAR, March 13: The secretary-general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, has called for Israelis to be tried by an international war crimes court for ‘heinous’ attacks against Palestinians.

Mr Ihsanoglu told an OIC summit in Senegal on Thursday that Israel was repeatedly seeking to undermine foreign-brokered peace plans.

“The situation in Palestine remains deplorable due to the successive crises fabricated by Israel to stall the peace process and to thwart the many peace plans and initiatives proposed by the international community,” he said.

“It has become indispensable that these aggressions and heinous crimes be officially documented and their perpetrators be brought before international justice designed for these kind of acts... such as the International Criminal Court.”

United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon told the summit that Israel’s “disproportionate and excessive use of force” had killed and injured many civilians, including children. He called for the violence to stop.

“I condemn these actions and call on Israel to cease such acts. Israel must fully comply with international humanitarian law and exercise utmost restraint,” he said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Jerusalem by banning the building of Palestinian homes and cutting the city off from the rest of the occupied West Bank.

An Israeli spokesman alleged that the source of the problem was rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israeli towns.—Reuters